Hunting for stocks to buy? 36 top bets from 8 portfolios that ruled April

Economic Times

20-05-2025

Despite market euphoria, top-performing PMS funds are strategically loading up on 36 unique stocks. These portfolios, delivering strong returns in April, reveal focused bets on midcap financials, digital disruption, and select plays in real estate and defence. While some experts caution against trend-driven segments, these holdings offer insights into where seasoned investors are placing their capital.
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Top of the pack: Trivantage Capital
Digital disruption and real estate bets
Thematic and sectoral diversity
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BSE, Eternal, Sobha, and BEL: The common denominators
With Nifty50 racing toward its third straight monthly win and smallcaps throwing a 20% party (versus Nifty's 13% jog), India's equity market is high on momentum and higher on mood. But in this euphoria-soaked backdrop, it's easy to get swept up by half-baked narratives and miss the quiet power plays being made by the best money managers in the game.We scoured the portfolios of India's top-performing equity PMS funds, those that have disclosed holdings as of April 2025, and unearthed a power-packed list of 36 unique stocks that the pros are loading up on.Together, these strategies delivered returns between 5.4% and 9.9% in April. Their top picks range from niche midcaps to well-known digital and defence names.Leading the table is Trivantage Capital Management's Small and Midcap Financials strategy, which returned nearly 10% in April. The portfolio is focused squarely on financial services with names like 360 ONE WAM, PNB Housing Finance, Federal Bank, BSE, and KFin Technologies, shows data pulled from PMSBazaar.Nikhil Johri, Founder and CIO at Trivantage, believes this is just the beginning of a broader recovery in the financial sector: 'We believe this recovery is still in its early stages and will gather further strength as macro stability returns and domestic demand remains resilient. Our portfolio is well-positioned to benefit from this mean reversion.'Valcreate Investment's IME Digital Disruption fund, up 6.97% in April, offers a sharply different mix. The portfolio is heavily weighted towards internet and fintech plays: PB Fintech, Eternal, One97 Communications, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, and Info Edge India make up the top five holdings. The bet here is on India's ongoing shift to digital services, financial inclusion, and online consumption.Meanwhile, real estate and defence themes also feature prominently in the portfolios of Alchemy Capital and BugleRock Capital. Both PMSes hold Sobha Ltd, while Bharat Electronics appears in both portfolios as well. Alchemy's High Growth strategy returned 7.14% in April, while BugleRock clocked 5.49%.In a recent note, Sanjeev Prasad from Kotak Institutional Equities had a cautionary note on these trend-driven segments. 'The market is again in the grips of irrational exuberance with the market quick to discount any half-baked narrative (defence being the latest one). The market's recurring tendency to buy into narratives is astonishing given the history of narratives. Many had emerged and collapsed in the past 2-3 years,' he said.The portfolios show notable divergence in approach. Tulsian PMS, for example, has evenly allocated 10% to each of its top five holdings—HAL, Mazagon Dock, Polycab, Suzlon, and GMR Airports—focusing on large-cap industrial and infrastructure themes.Fractal Capital's Opportunities portfolio, up 5.85%, leans into healthcare and small finance banking with AU Small Finance Bank, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, and Windlas Biotech.Ambit's Emerging Giants PMS—returning 5.47%—is a small-cap focused portfolio with niche plays like Mold-Tek Packaging, Mastek, Rajratan Global Wire, and TeamLease Services. Fident's FIBER strategy, also in the 5.4% range, features stocks like Zomato, Kaynes Technology, and Home First Finance.Among the stocks held across these top 8 portfolios, only four names appear more than once. BSE is held by both Trivantage and Alchemy, Sobha (Alchemy and BugleRock), Bharat Electronics (Alchemy and BugleRock) and Eternal (Fident and Valcreate).While narratives may dominate headlines, these top-performing PMS strategies reveal where seasoned investors are placing real capital. Whether it's a focused play on midcap financials, a digital disruption theme, or high-conviction bets in defence and real estate, the 36 stocks that appear in these portfolios offer a starting point for investors looking to track smart money with a track record of outperforming.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)